When Jennifer Lopez and Kanye West recently performed for Asian dictators in Turkmenistan and Kazakhstan, respectively, human rights activists were appalled that the pop stars would associate themselves with such repressive regimes.

But Stephen Colbert's late-night character saw those incidents as the sign of a new trend in luxury spending, as he explained on Tuesday's Colbert Report.

In the latest edition of his "Colbert Platinum" segment, aimed at ultra-rich members of his audience, the host advises "an underserved segment of the wealth community: dictators" to continue hiring Hollywood stars.

"If you're a shadowy developing world despot with money and villages to burn, you'll want to get ahold of this season's must-have accessory," he says before cutting to a news report about West performing at a wedding reception for the grandson of Kazakhstan's authoritarian president Nursultan Nazarbayev, who has long been accused of human rights abuses and rigged elections.